DAP offers to help AGC convict ‘correct’ Altantuya killers

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 ― The DAP legal
bureau today offered its services to prosecutors in the high-profile murder of
Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, suggesting that an overworked
Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) may have led to the acquittal of two former policemen
previously convicted of the killing. This comes as Segambut MP and bureau
member Lim Lip Eng (picture) lodged a police report in Jinjang here
over the Court of Appeal’s decision to free ex-police commandos Azilah Hadri
and Sirul Azhar Umar of their conviction in 2009 of the gruesome murder.

“Give DAP legal bureau the fiat (authorisation
order), we will make sure the correct person is prosecuted and convicted,” Lim
said in a statement here.

Speaking to The Malay Mail
Online on the phone, Lim said the bureau was offering its help to the AGC
due to the high-profile nature of the case. “Maybe the AGC is short-handed. We
just want to offer our help; together we can solve the case,” he said.

He pointed out that the move was
permissible by law, citing the recent appointment of lawyer Datuk Seri Muhammad
Shafee Abdullah as public prosecutor in the appeal against Datuk Seri Anwar
Ibrahim’s Sodomy II acquittal. Muhammad Shafee was given the authority by the
Attorney-General to lead the prosecution team in its appeal against Anwar’s
acquittal on a charge of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan. Anwar’s
defence team, however, filed a motion in the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya
yesterday to disqualify the appointment.

Earlier today, PKR’s R. Sivarasa
criticised the Court of Appeal over the two former policemen’s acquittal,
saying it should have ordered a retrial instead. The Subang MP stressed that
the appellate court was empowered to do so, especially when there were a number
of key witnesses who were not called during the High Court trial that led to
the duo’s conviction in 2009. “There is ample power under the law in section 60
of the Courts Judicature Act 1964 to order a retrial which is regularly done in
appeals,” Sivarasa said.

In a decision that stirred
controversy yesterday, a three-man panel of the appellate court unanimously
allowed Azilah and Sirul’s appeal. Azilah and Sirul, both formerly with the
police’s Special Action Unit (UTK), had been found guilty in 2009 of the murder
of Altantuya in Mukim Bukit Raja in Klang between 10pm on October 19, 2006 and
1am on October 20, 2006.

The Mongolian model’s murder trial
had been surrounded by political intrigue due to links drawn from the
personalities involved in the case. Azilah and Sirul had been part of a
security detail for then-Defence Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak while Abdul
Razak Baginda, who was charged with and later acquitted of abetting the duo,
was a former adviser to Najib. During the course of their trial, it was
revealed that Altantuya was shot and her body blown-up with explosives in a
jungle clearing on the night of October 19.

The duo had been charged under
section 149 of the Penal Code, which carries the mandatory death sentence upon
conviction. Sirul and Azilah were both released from Tapah Prison yesterday
after the Court of Appeal overturned the decision.